"I
said, 'Uncle Art, can I have one of the legs?' My mom said, 'No, Roy,
you can’t eat all that.' Uncle Art winked at me and then said, 'This is
my house. If Roy wants the leg, he can have the leg. Oh, but Roy, if you
don’t eat it all, you can finish it at the next meal. OK?' I said, 'Yes.
And thank you, Uncle Art.' Oh, we had a good Thanksgiving dinner. The
turkey, candied yams, mashed potatoes, green beans from Uncle Art’s
garden and peas too from there, salad and Jellos, pies and cakes. Yeah,
all this and I probably took the skin off my leg and about five bites of
it." Read more.

"Thanksgiving
Day arrived, at last, and I was looking forward to a juicy turkey dinner with
dressing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, just as promised on
the hospital menu. My sister, who was in graduate school in Claremont,
California, decided to drive to the hospital to see me. I really was so thrilled
she was coming to visit. I told my sister the food was good at the
hospital and that I could order a tray for her so we could eat together and
chat.
'Yuck,' she said. 'I don’t want any hospital food.' Nothing I said changed her
mind, and she convinced me to refuse my tray so I could eat the turkey dinner
from a diner in Westwood." Read more.

"It
was the first Christmas we were together after my spending a year in
Thailand without the family. We were in Ipswich, England, living in
temporary quarters at the Burstall Hotel. We bought a small tree and
since none of our household goods had arrived from the States, we had to
make our own decorations. ... When it was all done, the children were
very proud of their handiwork and so were Joy and I. For the first time
I felt like I was finally home and we were a family once again."
Read more.

"Uncle
Al sold fireworks in his store every year, and he really went overboard. He
bought everything and lots of it, so that whatever was not sold in the store—and
Uncle Al saw to it that that was a lot—always ended up at our house. Every 4th
of July, Mom would bake a zillion pies and cakes and make a meal, and all of our
relatives and friends converged on our front yard for a picnic."
Read more.